1From the University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, United Kingdom.+ Author Notes

↵2 Supported by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, and the Department of Health, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (an NIH National School for Primary Care grant) (all to PA). PA was supported by The UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies—a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence.

↵3 The new affiliation for PA is Department of Primary Care, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Background: Cognitive processes such as attention and memory may influence food intake, but the degree to which they do is unclear.

Objective: The objective was to examine whether such cognitive processes influence the amount of food eaten either immediately or in subsequent meals.

Design: We systematically reviewed studies that examined experimentally the effect that manipulating memory, distraction, awareness, or attention has on food intake. We combined studies by using inverse variance meta-analysis, calculating the standardized mean difference (SMD) in food intake between experimental and control groups and assessing heterogeneity with the I2 statistic.

Conclusions: Evidence indicates that attentive eating is likely to influence food intake, and incorporation of attentive-eating principles into interventions provides a novel approach to aid weight loss and maintenance without the need for conscious calorie counting.